The Carpool Experiment
by planet p
Summary: AU; Miss Parker wins first prize in a supermarket raffle.


It started with a supermarket raffle (she'd cut her finger on the ticket, she'd got it in a day before the closing date for the competition, it wasn't as though she was going to win), a phone call, and "Are you Miss Parker?"

"Yes."

"Congratulations, ma'am! You've won the first prize!"

The 'first prize,' she recalled, picking in serious aggravation at the sticky plaster on her finger, now, with a blinding flash of pain (in her head), was a minivan. What did she want with a minivan! What could she possibly _want_ with a minivan!

Her mind made up, she began to say, "I don't want it; give it to someone else o-" _Or something_ died on her lips as the caller continued on to list the details of what she had to do now to 'collect' her prize – the (much hated) minivan! – and her hand found the offending raffle ticket which she'd stowed away under the telephone, and only now remembered.

As she set her eyes on the ticket, scanning quickly over the colourful, shiny bits to the serious writing, in far too small a font, her heart sank and she zoned out the caller's words: her name had already been published in some local 'rag'! Photographs of the Winner and the Minivan and smiling faces would be expected! Her stomach gave a sickened, defeated lurch and she said, in a slightly shaking voice, "Can you please repeat that so I can get it down?"

* * *

The internet told her that a minivan could also be called a people-mover, a people-carrier, a multi-purpose vehicle (which was abbreviated to MPV), or a multi-utility vehicle (or MUV).

She snapped the lid of the laptop computer down and glaring at it for several moments as she fumed.

She still didn't want the stupid thing, but, try as she might, she couldn't find any way out of this! Supermarket raffles, she decided, had to be up there with the Center in Evil Deeds 101.

* * *

The day after the day she'd collect the minivan (had the awful photo taken with some suit purported to run/own the dealership who'd donated the 'automobile' to the raffle – why did she even bother to dress _up_ for that?), she decided that she wouldn't just hide her brand spanking, _new_ minivan in the garage (or some ravine in Nebraska somewhere – did they have ravines?): _No!_ She'd put it to good use – in a carpool!

Just maybe she was a little drunk when she sat down to make those flyers on her computer, and printed them off, and when she… ah, hang on, no… she hadn't been drunk when she'd put them up on some of the noticeboards at the Center (drink driving was a punishable offence, after all)… but maybe she'd had a quick drink in the elevator on her way down to the dining hall on SL-1, then Tech Space on SL-5 (she didn't have a hipflask; she'd nicked… well, someone's, and… maybe… given it back and promptly forgotten about it…) Damn! She'd been stone cold sober!

Excuses aside, she'd asked, on the flyer, for expressions of interest from persons wishing to join her carpool (which she was, of course, conducting to reduce harmful pollution emitted to the environment by motor vehicles – shudder, that choice of _word_: _motor vehicle_!). Of course, she'd also asked those who would be interested to include a reason for their interest. She could be contacted on her email address with the word 'carpool' in the topic line; deadlines to close in a week.

Somehow, she had gotten to the end of the week, and now, sitting at home in front of her computer, she was ready to check her email account for 'expressions of interest.' Repressing a heavy sigh – No, hand, you may _not_ reach for that bottle! – she found that she had, much less one, but _five_ interested parties. And not one of them anyone she'd been hoping, by some slim miracle, for them to be! Instead, she'd got Raines, Midori, Lyle, Cox, and Fulton.

Raines and Fulton – in a car together! She'd just begun to visualise the possibilities there… her minivan would be towed away by CSIs, covered in blood and bits of gore, for use in a murder investigation, at the top of the list… when she remembered that, joy of joys, she still had five reasons to read through and assess.

Could she really say 'no'?

Mulling over this, she decided to try Raines's first, and clicked the link to display the message.

_As a father, I feel it is a responsibility of mine to show support to my children's endeavours._

She leaned back from the computer screen in awe and shock. Wow! Not even a _Dear daughter_, or departing word. And, in his own words, he'd called her his _daughter_! She shuddered to think what kind of a home life Annie had had if her father hadn't even bothered to address _her_ by her name. Maybe she'd just been You. Of course, she was the illegitimate daughter (the _bad_ daughter); Annie had been his 'beloved,' _legitimate_ daughter. She had nothing against Annie of course, it was all just directed at her father! He'd killed her mother, made her life Hell, insert miscellaneous et cetera – in honesty, what more did the guy expect!

She clicked on the 'down' button to view her next message, which was from Midori.

_Dear Missy,_

_I want to join because I think it will be a good opportunity to get to know you. I have a few female friends but I am always keen to make more._

_Signed,_

_Midori Lee._

'Missy'! She suppressed a flinch. If Lyle had gotten around telling people (or even just Midori) that was her name: he was dead!

With mounting dread, she remembered that his email was next, and clicked the button to read it, shutting her eyes quickly.

She opened her eyes again.

_S.a.s.,_

_Because:-_

_I'm your brother,_

_We're twins,_

_You never know, we _might_ find something to talk about,_

_I need to make sure you're not 'inviting' objectionable guys, i.e. Reston,_

_It's a conspiracy; it has nothing to do with us! – Only Miss World would say, 'And to save the planet, of course!' I'd have suggested she join up, but she thinks I'm out of her league. (I seriously read her mind!) Yeah, and I never did think much of glittery tiaras._

_So that's why,_

_Your brother,_

_Lyle._

_Jerk! Shit!_ she thought, and clicked the button for the next message. Like she'd 'invite' Reston, much less allow him in her car! He was right on one thing, though, Miss World would probably have her boyfriend, from the _FB of I_, shoot him! (Or was that _Miss Congeniality_?)

_Miss Parker,_

_Frankly, my neighbour is not of sound mind. On and off, for several years now, she has been stalking me and, on the occasions she has had the gall to confront me, she has harangued me over my involvement in my younger sister's disappearance._

_Not only is her behaviour stressful to me (and, by extension, harmful to my job), it is disrespectful to my sister, whom I believe to be dead. If she would stop accosting me over things I didn't do and take a keen interest in the possibility that someone _else_ might have, then she may just start to see something no one else has managed to – like who it _was_ who did! And what happened to my sister! Whilst she is pursuing me and letting my sister's murderer go free, she is only hurting my sister all the more, and angering me all the more for it. I do not expect her to find anything real, but I cannot help but feel anger at her often malicious actions._

_I do not want to have to seek a restraining order or, if she pushes me too far one day, snap back at her, which, if I can come to the point, is the reason I think it would be of benefit to be seen amongst a larger group of people. I do not think that she will go after all of us, I think if she sees me with friends that she will back off and keep to herself; that sort of attack (against a large group of people) doesn't seem to be her._

_Let me assure you, secondly, that I am not proposing you put yourself in danger, if you feel at all uncomfortable with this proposal and my reasons for joining. Thirdly, by friends I do not mean to suggest that we need be, at all, if that is not to your kettle of fish._

_Regards,_

_Dr. JR Cox., M.D.,_

_Deputy Director of Med Space,_

_Department of Med Space,_

_The Center,_

_Blue Cove,_

_Delaware__._

Whilst disturbing, boring and predictably Cox, she got a laugh out of Cox's using his work email (hence, the long list after his name) to send her his 'expression of interest' as though, maybe, he was scared she'd sick Broots onto his personal email to dig for dirt!

Fulton's email was short, like Raines's, and didn't give much of a reason, but at least she'd bothered to use part of their names for greeting and signing off.

_Parker,_

_What the hell! I might as well give it a go._

_Fulton__._

She sighed and logged out of her email account to think.

An hour later, she wrote back to say, _Yeah, okay_, and when she usually set out for work (which would be adjusted by an hour and a half, say). She closed the computer with trepidation.

She just knew she was going to hate every minute of it!

* * *

**The Carpool Experiment** by planet p

**Disclaimer** I don't own _the Pretender_ or any of its characters.


End file.
